The global context in which we now live demands that tertiary education prepare students with knowledge of the interconnectedness of global issues, the ability to analyze them from diverse perspectives, and a willingness to engage in local and global problem-solving. Colleges and universities throughout the world increasingly fund and develop a variety of programs aimed at expanding the global horizons of their students. These programs range from student exchanges, to international research collaborations, to international and global curriculum. One would be hard pressed to find a college or university that does not include the word “international” or “global” in its mission statement.
However, how does a college or university turn the rhetoric of internationalization into reality? This paper is a case study of a large public research university in the southeast US that has made internationalization real. Florida International University (FIU) is the largest producer of Hispanic graduates in the US. FIU has always featured international aspects, but in 2006 the university engaged in a broad-based self-study to examine the extent to which it lives up to its middle name. This process revealed an “internationalization gap;” a disparity between the importance stakeholders ascribe to international learning and its implementation. In response to these results, FIU embarked on a purposeful, sustained, and integrative path towards comprehensive internationalization. Using grounded theory, the researchers found that FIU employed an iterative dialogic process, as described by Amartya Sen (Sen, 1999), that has led to an increased sense of agency among faculty, staff, and students, who for the first time are enacting the university’s long-held ideal of essential components of comprehensive internationalization.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished ManuscriptReview Method: Peer ReviewedAbstract: The global context in which we now live demands that tertiary education prepare students with knowledge of the interconnectedness of global issues, the ability to analyze them from diverse perspectives, and a willingness to engage in local and global problem-solving. Colleges and universities throughout the world increasingly fund and develop a variety of programs aimed at expanding the global horizons of their students. These programs range from student exchanges, to international research collaborations, to international and global curriculum. One would be hard pressed to find a college or university that does not include the word “international” or “global” in its mission statement.
However, how does a college or university turn the rhetoric of internationalization into reality? This paper is a case study of a large public research university in the southeast US that has made internationalization real. Florida International University (FIU) is the largest producer of Hispanic graduates in the US. FIU has always featured international aspects, but in 2006 the university engaged in a broad-based self-study to examine the extent to which it lives up to its middle name. This process revealed an “internationalization gap;” a disparity between the importance stakeholders ascribe to international learning and its implementation. In response to these results, FIU embarked on a purposeful, sustained, and integrative path towards comprehensive internationalization. Using grounded theory, the researchers found that FIU employed an iterative dialogic process, as described by Amartya Sen (Sen, 1999), that has led to an increased sense of agency among faculty, staff, and students, who for the first time are enacting the university’s long-held ideal of essential components of comprehensive internationalization.